Tadej Pogacar to go head-to-head against Jonas Vingegaard at Paris-Nice but will skip Strade-Bianche

Tadej Pogacar will miss this year’s Strade-Bianche as he has decided to race in Paris-Nice, meaning he will go head-to-head against Jonas Vingegaard. It’s the first time the pair have met at a WorldTour stage race since their thrilling battle at last year’s Tour de France, which was won by Vingegaard.

Ad The only occasions they raced each other after the Tour de France was Il Lombardia, where Pogacar was victorious and Vingegaard was 16th. Ruta del SolFraile wins Stage 5 as Ineos manage to break UAE Team Emirates dominance at Vuelta Andalucia19/02/2023 AT 19:02 “It was a hard choice because Strade and Paris-Nice looked like a really interesting challenge but I think this challenge can wait a bit,” Pogacar told Sporza.

“If I want to be really good in Paris-Nice, which I’ve never done before and it’s a super hard race, the team time trial will be important and we need to spend a few days before the race together. “If I do Strade-Bianche that’s impossible, I’d go to the team time trial without any knowledge of the group and don’t think it’ll work.” Paris-Nice takes place from March 5-12, live on Eurosport and discovery+, but will not feature defending champion Primoz Roglic, as Vingegaard will lead Jumbo-Visma.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) are among the other big names competing. After suffering from gastroenteritis, Pogacar had a great seven days last week when he won the Clasica Jaen Paraíso Interior and dominated the Vuelta a Andalucia.